"Love in a Cold World"

Svart

Artists:

The first exposure many in the metal world had to the eclectic Finns in Beastmilk came from a fairly unlikely source: Darkthrone's Fenriz, who posted a gushing review of their two-track cassette demo on his Band of the Week blog in 2010. Given his usual propensity for all things Midnight or Manilla Road, this mysterious post-punk outfit seemed like a strange choice, but it proved difficult to argue with their entrancing debut EP, Use Your Deluge. Beastmilk’s first proper album (out soon via Svart) dances in that EP's footsteps, combining eerie slabs of psyched-out rock’n’roll with dead-eyed post punk and sharply glittering new wave. The songs skip merrily between darkness and light, while Kvohst’s vocals sound vulnerable and bleak.

Kvohst's time in British black metallers Code and Norwegian touchstones Dodheimsgard surely left a mark, but it's his work in freak folk darlings Hexvessel that has made the biggest impact on his vocal style, echoing 80’s misfits the Cure and Joy Division as often as Roky Erickson’s lush strangeness and Danzig’s bravado. Apocalyptic visions and a wicked sense of humor populate audio nightmares as Beastmilk create visceral, unsettling death rock for the elite in “Love in a Cold World”, a jangly post-punk death wish.